Schenectady

Nearly three years after settling a dispute over money bequeathed to the hospital, Ellis has opened a sparkling 17,280-square-foot school that its director says will make area students better nurses.

"We're being well-positioned to move nursing education forward in our community," said Marilyn Stapleton, director of the new Belanger School of Nursing, which opened to much fanfare on the campus of Ellis Health Center in the Health Services building at 650 McClellan St. "We are setting the stage for our preferred future."

That future, she explained during a phone interview, includes eight out of 10 nurses obtaining their baccalaureate degree, a standard the profession has set as a goal.

"We are taking some finite steps to educate nurses toward baccalaureate education," said Stapleton, adding that the school plans to partner in the future with a local liberal arts college so students can earn their bachelor's degrees.

To that end, Belanger features a skills lab and a high-fidelity simulation room complete with a mannequin that can "breathe, blink, cough, and talk" and also has a pulse and vital signs" to enhance the learning experience of students.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday attracted politicians, including Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy and Sen. Sen. Cecilia Tkaczyk, as well as medical professionals.

Stapleton said the theme of her message to them and others in the crowd of more than 150 people was new beginnings.

The facility was formerly the Ellis School of Nursing on Erie Boulevard.

In 2010, Ellis Medicine paid $5.6 million and agreed to rename its nursing school as part of a settlement with the family of John and Anna Nordgreen Belanger, who alleged Ellis misused a major bequest made to the hospital in the 1970s.

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Belanger nursing school opens